Got leftover chicken wings? Don’t throw them out! Make this soup instead. Colby makes great chicken wings for football games; he’s perfected his technique over the past year. This last time, Colby doubled his recipe.. and brought home a supreme pizza, ice cream, chips, and chocolate! Needless to say, we had plenty of leftovers!

I was making buffalo chicken salad sandwiches for him this week (pull meat off the bones, chop, add diced celery, and dress with ranch or bleu cheese dressing), but it got to be a pain to pull the tiny bits of meat off the bones.

Determined not to let his tasty wings go to waste, I made this buffalo chicken soup! It’s spicy and very savory thanks to the chicken bones. You could easily make it using chicken breast instead of leftover wings, though!

If this is what you’re looking at the day after the Super Bowl, give this recipe a try!

Ingredients:

(Serves 6-8)

1-2 lbs leftover buffalo wings (or 1 lb cooked shredded chicken)

2 cups chicken stock, boiling

2 cups water

15 oz can whole tomatoes, mashed

4 carrots, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 jalapeño, seeded and diced

1 bay leaf

1-2 teaspoons dry ranch seasoning (or salt, according to taste)

1/4 cup Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (or more if you like it super spicy!)

Sour cream, bleu cheese dressing, or ranch dressing for serving

Directions:

1. Place the leftover buffalo wings in a large saucepan containing the boiling chicken stock. Boil for about 5 minutes, just long enough for the skin to come loose.
2. Use tongs to transfer the wings, one at a time, into a large bowl of ice water. Use your hands to peel the skin off the wings. Throw out the skin and place the meat and bones back into the simmering stock. Repeat for all the wings.
3. Add the water, tomatoes, diced vegetables, bay leaf, ranch seasoning/ salt, and hot sauce to the saucepan. Bring to a boil then cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 1 hour, or until all vegetables are tender and chicken is falling off the bone.
4. Lade into serving bowls and garnish with sour cream, bleu cheese dressing, or ranch dressing.

PS- you could easily make this recipe in a slow cooker. Simply combine all ingredients in a slow cooker after skinning the chicken wings and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours. Enjoy!!

By the way, do you like my snazzy new photography setup? I picked up the supplies at Lowe’s: piece of drywall, white subway tile, marble tile, tile adhesive, and caulk. It only took about 30 minutes to build, so I’ll probably make another setup sometime soon! I think dark wood, sandstone, or slate would look nice.